Iris Deng
Mr. Constans
English p.5
4 January 2016
The Adventures of Huck Finn: Racial and Religious Hypocrisy Mark Twain is both a novelist and a social critic in his book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain depicts the reality of American society in the 1800s through the tale of Huck Finn and suggests through numerous examples of hypocrisy that the dominant culture is often wrong. Twain condemns the racial and religious hypocrisy in American society.
Twain uses Pap and Jim as contrasting father figures to condemn racial hypocrisy. Pap locks Huck in a cabin and staggers around drunk while insulting a free black professor as an “infernal, white-shirted free [ninja]” (27). Pap is an ignorant drunkard but insults a highly educated black …show more content…
Twain uses the failed enculturation of Huck into Miss Watson’s Christian belief system to condemn religious hypocrisy. Miss Watson lives so as to “go to the good place” (3). Her incentive is a reward-based one so she can go to heaven. Her belief is one that strictly follows the literal sayings of the Bible. She tries to enculturate Huck into her belief system by telling him about Moses. Moses freed the Israelites from Egypt. He rescued people out of slavery. Yet even as Miss Watson preaches this, she is someone who owns other human beings as slaves. Miss Watson’s preaching and action show a contradiction. Although an obvious inconsistency, many Christians used the Bible to falsely justify the owning of slaves. Perhaps because Huck has not been “civilized,” Huck sees through this contradiction. Miss Watson’s efforts to enculturate Huck into this belief system fails as Huck decides that he doesn’t want to go to heaven. He would rather go to hell. Twain uses Huck’s failed enculturation to the Christian belief to condemn religious hypocrisy in American society. Twain criticizes Christians of the 1800s and shows that falsely justifying immoral actions with the words of the Bible is artificial and easily …show more content…
Twain uses Huck’s baffled reaction to the actions of the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons to condemn religious hypocrisy yet again. Both families are Christians living in the same area. The families go to Church and learn “all about brotherly love” (109). Brotherly love should mean that each person loves his neighbors like himself. The Grangerfords and Shepherdsons should live in harmony. However, their family feud has killed many on both sides. The families view going to church as a ritual in their religion. They are deaf to the sermon but believe that by simply being at church, they can go to heaven. Instead of learning from the sermon, the families take their guns and fight because of a family feud after church. The reason for the feud has long been forgotten. Each family no longer remembers why they are fighting, yet no one chooses to stop. Huck is baffled by this and describes the day as a “strange set of events”. He sees how hypocritical it is to learn about love for your neighbors at church and fight your neighbors on the same day. Twain uses Huck’s baffled emotions to condemn the religious hypocrisy of American society. Twain shows that being religious is hypocritical if believers do not follow the teachings of their religion and use their religion merely as a “ticket to
Mr. Constans
English p.5
4 January 2016
The Adventures of Huck Finn: Racial and Religious Hypocrisy Mark Twain is both a novelist and a social critic in his book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain depicts the reality of American society in the 1800s through the tale of Huck Finn and suggests through numerous examples of hypocrisy that the dominant culture is often wrong. Twain condemns the racial and religious hypocrisy in American society.
Twain uses Pap and Jim as contrasting father figures to condemn racial hypocrisy. Pap locks Huck in a cabin and staggers around drunk while insulting a free black professor as an “infernal, white-shirted free [ninja]” (27). Pap is an ignorant drunkard but insults a highly educated black …show more content…
Twain uses the failed enculturation of Huck into Miss Watson’s Christian belief system to condemn religious hypocrisy. Miss Watson lives so as to “go to the good place” (3). Her incentive is a reward-based one so she can go to heaven. Her belief is one that strictly follows the literal sayings of the Bible. She tries to enculturate Huck into her belief system by telling him about Moses. Moses freed the Israelites from Egypt. He rescued people out of slavery. Yet even as Miss Watson preaches this, she is someone who owns other human beings as slaves. Miss Watson’s preaching and action show a contradiction. Although an obvious inconsistency, many Christians used the Bible to falsely justify the owning of slaves. Perhaps because Huck has not been “civilized,” Huck sees through this contradiction. Miss Watson’s efforts to enculturate Huck into this belief system fails as Huck decides that he doesn’t want to go to heaven. He would rather go to hell. Twain uses Huck’s failed enculturation to the Christian belief to condemn religious hypocrisy in American society. Twain criticizes Christians of the 1800s and shows that falsely justifying immoral actions with the words of the Bible is artificial and easily …show more content…
Twain uses Huck’s baffled reaction to the actions of the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons to condemn religious hypocrisy yet again. Both families are Christians living in the same area. The families go to Church and learn “all about brotherly love” (109). Brotherly love should mean that each person loves his neighbors like himself. The Grangerfords and Shepherdsons should live in harmony. However, their family feud has killed many on both sides. The families view going to church as a ritual in their religion. They are deaf to the sermon but believe that by simply being at church, they can go to heaven. Instead of learning from the sermon, the families take their guns and fight because of a family feud after church. The reason for the feud has long been forgotten. Each family no longer remembers why they are fighting, yet no one chooses to stop. Huck is baffled by this and describes the day as a “strange set of events”. He sees how hypocritical it is to learn about love for your neighbors at church and fight your neighbors on the same day. Twain uses Huck’s baffled emotions to condemn the religious hypocrisy of American society. Twain shows that being religious is hypocritical if believers do not follow the teachings of their religion and use their religion merely as a “ticket to